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COMMUNITY FOREST RESOURCE

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS | COMMUNITY FOREST RESOURCE (CFR) RIGHTS | 30TH MAY | INDIAN EXPRESS

/ May, 2022, UPSC Daily Current Affairs

SYLLABUS SECTION: GS III (ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY)

WHY IN THE NEWS:

Recently, the Chhattisgarh government has become only the second state in the country.

  • To recognize the Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights of a village inside a national park.

About:                                         

  • The CFR rights of tribals living in Gudiyapadar, a hamlet reserved for the Kanger Ghati National Park in Bastar district.
  • They were recognizing, for giving the community power to formulate rules for forest use.
  • It also underlines the integral role that forest dwellers play in the sustainability of forests and in the conservation of biodiversity.
  • Now Kanger Ghati National Park has become the second national park, after Simlipal in Odisha.
  • Where CFR rights have been recognize.

What is a community forest resource?

  • The community forest resource area is the common forest land that has been traditionally protecting.
  • And the conserved for sustainable use by a particular community.
  • The community uses it to access resources available within the traditional and customary boundary of the village, and for seasonal use of landscape in case of pastoralist communities.
  • Each CFR area has a customary boundary with identifiable landmarks recognized by the community and its neighboring villages.
  • It may include forests of any category – revenue forest, classified & unclassified forest, deemed forest, DLC land, reserve forest, protected forest, sanctuary, and national parks, etc.
  • The Community Forest Resource rights under Section 3(1)(i) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (Forest Rights Act ).
  • They provide for recognition of the right to “protect, regenerate or conserve or manage” the community forest resource.

Importance of recognition of CFR rights:

  • Aimed at undoing the “historic injustice” meted out to forest-dependent communities
  • It recognizes the community’s right to use, manage and conserve forest resources, and to legally hold forest land that these communities have used for cultivation and residence.
  • It is of greater significance inside protected forests like national parks, sanctuaries, and tiger reserves as traditional dwellers then become a part of the management of the protected forests using their traditional wisdom.

Read more: UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS

Source: Indian Express